Arming without Aiming

India's Military Modernization

India has long been motivated to modernize its military, and it now has the resources.
But so far, the drive to rebuild has lacked a critical component—strategic military
planning. India's approach of arming without strategic purpose remains viable,
however, as it seeks great-power accommodation of its rise and does not want to
appear threatening. What should we anticipate from this effort in the future, and what
are the likely ramifications? Stephen Cohen and Sunil Dasgupta answer those crucial
questions in a book so timely that it reached number two on the nonfiction bestseller
list in India.

"Two years after the publication of Arming without Aiming, our view is that India's
strategic restraint and its consequent institutional arrangement remain in place. We
do not want to predict that India's military-strategic restraint will last forever, but we
do expect that the deeper problems in Indian defense policy will continue to slow
down military modernization."—from the preface to the paperback edition